Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Jeopardy!!!


Everyone here is my jeopardy game!


This deals with standards S7L1, S7L2, S7L3, S7L4, and S7L5

jeopardylabs.com/play/science10333

-Andy Iyabor

Evolution (S7L5)

Hello there!! This post will be focusing on evolution! Which is standard S7L5. Have fun and enjoy!

Standard S7L5:

Students will examine the evolution of living organisms through inherited characteristics that promote survival of organisms and their survival of organisms and the survival of successive generations of their offspring. 
Element A:
Explain that physical characteristics of organisms have changed over successive generations. 
Element B:
Describe ways in which species on Earth have evolved due to natural selection.
Element C:
Explain how the fossil record found in sedimentary rock provides evidence for the long history of changing life forms.

Evolution- Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.
Evolution is the last standard that I ill be talking about, so make sure to pay attention! I will only be talking about fossils, natural selection, and evolution.


Fossils- Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record.

The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, and the evolutionary relationships between taxa (phylogeny) are some of the most important functions of the science of paleontology. Such a preserved specimen is called a "fossil" if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. Hence, fossils range in age from the youngest at the start of the Holocene Epoch to the oldest from the Archaean Eon, up to 3.48 billion years old. The observation that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or "absolute" age of the various strata and thereby the included fossils.

Natural Selection- 

Natural selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of evolution. The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, now more commonly referred to as selective breeding.
Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations occur in the genome of an individual organism, and these mutations can be passed to offspring. Throughout the individuals’ lives, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. (The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment.) Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other variants. Therefore the population evolves. Factors that affect reproductive success are also important, an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection, for example. Natural selection acts on the phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an organism, but the genetic (heritable) basis of uany phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population (see allele frequency). Over time, this process can result in populations that specialize for particular ecological niches and may eventually result in the emergence of new species. In other words, natural selection is an important process (though not the only process) by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms. Natural selection can be contrasted with artificial selection, in which humans intentionally choose specific traits (although they may not always get what they want). In natural selection there is no intentional choice. In other words, artificial selection is teleological and natural selection is not teleological.

Evolution- 
Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.
All life on Earth is descended from a last universal ancestor that lived approximately 3.8 billion years ago. Repeated speciation and the divergence of life can be inferred from shared sets of biochemical and morphological traits, or by shared DNA sequences. These homologous traits and sequences are more similar among species that share a more recent common ancestor, and can be used to reconstruct evolutionary histories, using both existing species and the fossil record. Existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction.
Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a process inferred from three facts about populations: 1) more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, 2) traits vary among individuals, leading to different rates of survival and reproduction, and 3) trait differences are heritable. Thus, when members of a population die they are replaced by the progeny of parents better adapted to survive and reproduce in the environment in which natural selection takes place. This process creates and preserves traits that are seemingly fitted for the functional roles they perform. Natural selection is the only known cause of adaptation, but not the only known cause of evolution. Other, nonadaptive causes of evolution include mutation and genetic drift.

That's it, this is the last standard!!! Have fun with it and make sure to get the knowledge!!



Copyrights: I got the videoes from youtube.com
I got the pictures from google images
I got most of the info from wiki


-Andy Iyabor








Genes and Chromosomes (S7L3.a)

Here are pictures of genes and chromosomes:

Standard S7L3:

Students will recognize how biological traits are passed on to successive generations. 
Element A:
Explain the role of genes and chromosomes in the process of inheriting a specific trait. 






























-Andy Iyabor

A/sexual reproduction (S7L3.b)

                                                  Here are pictures of a/sexual reproduction:

Standard S7L3:

Students will recognize how biological traits are passed on to successive generations. 
Element B:
Compare and contrast sexual and asexual reproduction in organisms.






































-Andy Iyabor



Selective Breeding (S7L3.c)

Here are pictures of selective breeding:

Standard S7L3:
Students will recognize how biological traits are passed on to successive generations. 
                                                                         Element C:
              Recognize that selective breeding can produce plants or animals with desired traits. 









































-Andy Iyabor


Genetics (S7L3)


Hello there again, this post will be specifically on the standard S7L3 which is genetics. Good luck and have fun with genetics!!!!!

Standard S7L3:
Students will recognize how biological traits are passed on to successive generations. 
Element A:
Explain the role of genes and chromosomes in the process of inheriting a specific trait. 
Element B:
Compare and contrast sexual and asexual reproduction in organisms.
Element C:
Recognize that selective breeding can produce plants or animals with desired traits. 

Genetics- The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics.
Genetics has to be my favorite standard of them all. (Here is the better version) Genetics is the process of trait inheritance from parents to offspring, including the molecular structure and function of genes, gene behavior in the context of a cell or organism (e.g. dominance and epigenetics), gene distribution and variation and change in populations. Given that genes are universal to living organisms, genetics can be applied to the study of all living systems, including bacteria, plants, animals, and humans. Here I will be talking about selective breeding, asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, genes and chromosomes. Good luck and I hope you have fun!!!!!!



Selective breeding- Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans breed other animals and plants for particular traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is normally done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties, cultigens, or cultivars. The offspring of two purebreed animals but of different breeds is called a crossbreed, and crossbred plants are called hybrids.
There are two approaches or types of artificial selection, or selective breeding. First is the traditional “breeder’s approach” in which the breeder or experimenter applies “a known amount of selection to a single phenotypic trait” by examining the chosen trait and choosing to breed only those that exhibit higher or “extreme values” of that trait. The second is called “controlled natural selection,” which is essentially natural selection in a controlled environment. In this, the breeder does not choose which individuals being tested “survive or reproduce,” as he or she could in the traditional approach. There are also “selection experiments,” which is a third approach and these are conducted in order to determine the “strength of natural selection in the wild.” However, this is more often an observational approach as opposed to an experimental approach.
In animal breeding, techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing are utilized. In plant breeding, similar methods are used. Charles Darwin discussed how selective breeding had been successful in producing change over time in his book, On the Origin of Species. The first chapter of the book discusses selective breeding and domestication of such animals as pigeons, cats, cattle, and dogs. Selective breeding was used by Darwin as a springboard to introduce the theory of natural selection, and to support it.
The deliberate exploitation of selective breeding to produce desired results has become very common in agriculture and experimental biology.
Selective breeding can be unintentional, AKA resulting from the process of human cultivation; and it may also produce unintended – desirable or undesirable – results. For example, in some grains, an increase in seed size may have resulted from certain ploughing practices rather than from the intentional selection of larger seeds. Most likely, there has been an interdependence between natural and artificial factors that have resulted in plant domestication.

Asexual reproduction- asexual reproduction is a mode of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single organism, and inherit the genes of that parent only; it is reproduction which almost never involves ploidy or reduction[disambiguation needed]. The offspring will be exact genetic copies of the parent, except in the specific case of automixis. A more stringent definition is agamogenesis which is reproduction without the fusion of gametes. Asexual reproduction is the primary form of reproduction for single-celled organisms such as the archaebacteria, eubacteria, and protists. Many plants and fungi reproduce asexually as well.

While all prokaryotes reproduce asexually (without the formation and fusion of gametes), mechanisms for lateral gene transfer such as conjugation, transformation and transduction are sometimes likened to sexual reproduction. A complete lack of sexual reproduction is relatively rare among multicellular organisms, particularly animals. It is not entirely understood why the ability to reproduce sexually is so common among them. Current hypotheses suggest that asexual reproduction may have short term benefits when rapid population growth is important or in stable environments, while sexual reproduction offers a net advantage by allowing more rapid generation of genetic diversity, allowing adaptation to changing environments. Developmental constraints may underlie why few animals have relinquished sexual reproduction completely in their life-cycles. Another constraint on switching from sexual to asexual reproduction would be the concomitant loss of meiosis and the protective recombinational repair of DNA damage afforded as one function of meiosis.

 Sexual Reproduction- Sexual reproduction is a process that creates a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms. It occurs both in eukaryotes and prokaryotes in multicellular eukaryote organisms, an individual is created anew; in prokaryotes, the initial cell has additional or transformed genetic material. In a process called genetic recombination, genetic material (DNA) originating from two different individuals (parents) join up so that homologous sequences are aligned with each other, and this is followed by exchange of genetic information. 
Sexual reproduction is the primary method of reproduction for the vast majority of macroscopic organisms, including almost all animals and plants. The evolution of sexual reproduction is a major puzzle. The first fossilized evidence of sexual reproduction in eukaryotes is from the Stenian period, about 1 to 1.2 billion years ago. There are two main processes during sexual reproduction in eukaryotes: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the restoration of the original number of chromosomes. During meiosis, the chromosomes of each pair usually exchange genetic information to achieve homologous recombination. Evolutionary thought proposes several explanations for why sexual reproduction developed and why it is maintained. These reasons include fighting the accumulation of deleterious mutations, increasing rate of adaptation to changing environments, dealing with competition (see the tangled bank hypothesis) or as an adaptation for repairing DNA damage and masking deleterious mutations. The maintenance of sexual reproduction has been explained by theories that work at several different levels of selection, though some of these models remain controversial. New models presented in recent years, however, suggest a basic advantage for sexual reproduction in slowly reproducing, complex organisms, exhibiting characteristics that depend on the specific environment that the given species inhabit, and the particular survival strategies that they employ.

Genes and chromosomes- 
Genes- A gene is the molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is used extensively by the scientific community as a name given to some stretches of deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) and ribonucleic acids (RNA) that code for a polypeptide or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains. Genes hold the information to build and maintain an organism's cells and pass genetic traits to offspring. All organisms have genes corresponding to various biological traits, some of which are instantly visible, such as eye color or number of limbs, and some of which are not, such as blood type, increased risk for specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that comprise life.
Chromosomes- A chromosome is a structure of DNA, protein, and RNA found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions. Chromosomal DNA encodes most or all of an organism's genetic information; some species also contain plasmids or other extrachromosomal genetic elements.


Well, that's basically everything you need to know about genetics!! Have fun learning and studying!


I got most of the info from wiki
I got the pictures from google images
I got the videos from youtube.com 

-Andy Iyabor














Dichotomous Key (S7L1.a,b)

Here are pictures of dichotomous keys:

Standard S7L1:
Students will investigate the diversity of living organisms and how they can be compared scientifically.
Element A:
Demonstrate the process for the development of a dichotomous key.
Element B: 
Classify organisms based on physical characteristics using a dichotomous key of  the six kingdom systems. 
























-Andy Iyabor

Monday, April 21, 2014

Classification (S7L1)

Hello there again, and today this post will be specifically on standard S7L1 which is dichotomous keys. Good luck and have fun with dichotomous keys!!!

Standard S7L1:

Students will investigate the diversity of living organisms and how they can be compared scientifically.
Element A:
Demonstrate the process for the development of a dichotomous key.
Element B: 
Classify organisms based on physical characteristics using a dichotomous key of the six kingdom systems. 

Definition of dichotomous key- A dichotomous key is constructed using contrasting characteristics to divide the organisms in the key into smaller and smaller groups; each time a choice is made, a number of organisms are eliminated.
Dichotomous keys are a very small unit that contains very basic information. Basically what a key does is just tells them apart. Animals can be very similar sometimes, but the dichotomous key tells the VERY little differences between them. Its very easy and I will elaborate on it just a little bit so you can get a basic understanding of it. I will be talking about the 6 kingdoms and that's pretty much it for this standard. Good luck!!! 


6 Kingdoms- The six kingdoms are, fungi, animalia, protista, plantae, bacteria, archaea:
Plantae- You are probably quite familiar with the members of this kingdom as it contains all the plants that you have come to know - flowering plants, mosses, and ferns.  Plants are all multicellular and consist of complex cells.
Animalia- The animal kingdom is the largest kingdom with over 1 million known species. All animals consist of many complex cells. They are also heterotrophs. Most or all members of the animal kingdom are found in the most diverse environments in the world.
Fungi- Fungi are organisms that biologists once confused with plants, however, unlike plants, fungi cannot make their own food. Most obtain their food from parts of plants that are decaying in the soil. Mushrooms, mold and mildew are all examples of organisms in the kingdom fungi. And most fungi are multicellular and consists of many complex cells.
Protista- Most protists are unicellular. You may be wondering why those protists are not classified in the Archaebacteria or Eubacteria kingdoms. It is because, unlike bacteria, protists are complex cells. Slime molds and algae are protists. Sometimes they are called the odds and ends kingdom because its members are so different from one another.  Protists include all microscopic organisms that are not bacteria, not animals, not plants and not fungi.
Archaebacteria- In 1983, scientists tool samples from a spot deep in the Pacific Ocean where hot gases and molten rock boiled into the ocean form the Earth’s interior.  To their surprise they discovered unicellular (one cell) organisms in the samples. These organisms are today classified in the kingdom, Archaebacteria.
Eubacteria- Like archaebacteria, eubacteria are complex and single celled.  Most bacteria are in the EUBACTERIA kingdom. They are the kinds found everywhere and are the ones people are most familiar with. Eubacteria are classified in their own kingdom because their chemical makeup is different.


And thats just some info that is very good for you to learn about the 6 kingdoms!!!


I got the pictures from google images, and i got the video from youtube.com

-Andy Iyabor












Saturday, April 19, 2014

Symbiosis (S7L4.d)

Here are pictures for symbiosis:

Standard S7L4:
Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and their environments.

Element D:
Categorize relationships between organisms that are competitive or mutually beneficial.
















-Andy Iyabor


Meiosis/Mitosis (S7L4.a)

                                                           Here are pictures of meiosis/mitosis:

                                                                        Standard S7L2:
         Students will describe the structure and functions of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. 
                                                                             Element A: 
        Explain that cells take in nutrients in order to grow and divide and to make needed materials. 














-Andy Iyabor

Cells (S7L2.a,b,c,d,e)

Here are pictures of cells:
                                                                      Standard S7L2:
       Students will describe the structure and functions of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.















-Andy Iyabor

Organ Systems (S7L2.e)

Here are pictures of organ systems:
                                                                     
                                                                     Standard S7L2:

       Students will describe the structure and functions of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.
                                                                         Element E:
                             Explain the purpose of the major organ systems in the human body. 





























-Andy Iyabor


Ecological Footprint (S7L4.c)


 Here are pictures of ecological footprint:


Standard S7L4:
Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and their environments.

Element C:

Recognize that changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of both individuals and entire species.
















-Andy Iyabor

Food Webs (S7L4.a and b)

Here are pictures of Food Webs:
Standard S7L4:
Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and their environments.
Element A:
Demonstrate in a food web that matter is transferred from one organism to another and can recycle between organisms and their environments.
Element B:
Explain in a food web that sunlight is the source of energy and that this energy moves from organism to organism.

 -Andy Iyabor